The 20th century was the defining era of high school football, and during that time a select group of programs across the country solidified their reputations as the nation’s greatest. These programs—with legendary coaches like Paul Brown, Wright Bazemore, Gerry Faust, and Bob Ladouceur—produced national championship teams at schools with names like Massillon, Valdosta, Moeller, and De La Salle. But which of these teams was the greatest?

A history of semiprofessional football clubs in Ohio — the Ironton Tanks, the Portsmouth Spartans, and others — and an intimate study of how the citizens and organizations that made up these cities worked to put themselves on the map.